Parents hold secret of beating cancer

clipped from www.abc.net.au Cancer sufferers whose parents beat the disease have a better chance of doing the same, according to a Swedish study that suggests survival traits are hereditary. Children may inherit their parents' ability to beat cancer The research says good survival, defined as living for at least 10 years past the cancer diagnosis, extends to breast, lung, prostate and colorectal cancers. The same may hold for other cancers, the researchers, led by Dr Linda Lindstrom of the Karolinksa Institute in Stockholm, say only these four cancers were present in sufficient numbers in the database to be statistically significant It has long been known that family history is a risk factor for many forms of cancer this is the first evidence extending that filial bond to the child's chances of living with or overcoming the disease. Children with the same cancer as a parent who died within 10 years of diagnosis had a much bleaker outlook compared with patients whose parents survived longer after developing the disease

Resistance to cancer can be inherited, with the gene possibly carried on and strengthened, but there is the fact that many cases of cancer strike after child bearing years, so can have a limited effect on the resistance of a population.